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My beloved LAU family,
Trustees, Faculty,
Staff, Students, Alumni
and devoted Friends,
I address you today for
the first time as
LAU’s 9th President
fully cognizant of the
symbolism of the moment
and of the
expectations you have
from a new President in
facing the prevailing
difficult
circumstances.
I will not promise you
easy deliverance
from all
the ills facing our
university and crippling
the country, but I can
assure you
that I will work
assiduously to address
all the
challenges that are
lying ahead.
These challenges are
existential and
threaten the core of our
mission. The current
public health pandemic
has
affected access to our
campuses and is testing
our ability in keeping
all our
constituents safe. The
economic meltdown in the
country is stressing our
financial resources and
can jeopardize the
retention of our
faculty, the most
precious resource we
have. However, and
despite
the fierce competition
we face and despite the
current unstable and
volatile
political climate, we
have an obligation to
plan for and invest in a
better
future and a brighter
tomorrow for the next
generations of
students.
For the past four years
as dean of the Gilbert
and Rose-Marie Chagoury
School of Medicine, I
have had the privilege
and honor
to work with many of
you. I know the faculty,
staff, academic and
administrative units and
I know your aspirations
and the hardships you
are
facing. I will work
closely with all of you
in all transparency and
good faith
to bring about relief
measures addressing the
challenges we all face.
Succeeding Dr. Jabbra is
a monumental
task I do not take
lightly. His legacy will
continue to be a source
of
inspiration to all of us
for years to come. His
Presidency established
values
and set standards for
LAU that will serve us
well in the tumultuous
years that
lie ahead. No tribute to
Dr. Jabbra can be more
fitting than declaring
our
solemn determination to
keep pushing forward and
move LAU to the next
level.
That we will do together
as a close-knit team
singularly dedicated to
LAU.
Today we turn a new page
in our
institutional history
and head into the
future, which is “no
longer what it
used to be”!
The future we will have
to navigate will
be far more demanding
than anything we
have experienced in the
past. More will have to
be achieved with
significantly
less, turbulence and
uncertainty will be the
norm, competition will
intensify
immeasurably, and old
ways and traditions in
higher education will
give way to
exponentially
progressive innovation.
There will be room only
for those who
know how to reinvent
themselves, take the
“brave new world” by
storm and act
forthrightly on the
axiom “innovate or die”.
The implications, among
others,
will be reassessing our
curriculum accordingly,
rethinking faculty
qualifications, finding
new ways to integrate
liberal arts, and
educating the
whole person not
strictly the
professionals.
The next phase in higher
education will
consist of a paradigm
shift towards a digital
and post-digital
culture. This is
necessary to keep pace
with a world that is
changing “at the speed
of thought”.
In such a world,
in-person attendance and
geographic boundaries
will be very
difficult to preserve in
what is tantamount to
one big post-digital
institutional
platform. Becoming
number one in the region
under such circumstances
is a tall
order that will require
a herculean effort on
our part. I urge you all
to
participate and not to
be intimidated by
the digital divide or
the growing world
of massive data, data
analytics and artificial
intelligence.
Such a pursuit is a
game-changer as we
suddenly find ourselves
in need of new
differentiators in a
rapidly widening
competitive circle. We
will have to learn to
lead in a world that is
constantly
in the making. Learning
cycle timing will
continue to become
shorter and
shorter and learning
curves will be getting
steeper and steeper. A
changed
world with new rules is
upon us as we start this
new academic year.
Proactive
learning is now the acid
test to which we will
all be subjected. The
past is
only a partial guide to
the future and success
can beget failure.
My fellow members of the
LAU family,
Moments of transition
are great
opportunities for
institutions to take
stock of their
achievements and rethink
their agenda. Our
achievements are
monumental by any
standard and give us a
solid base in a world
that is more complex and
turbulent than ever.
What lies
ahead, however, is
nothing short of
repositioning LAU as a
leading center of
innovative
learning and putting it
on a course of regional
leadership and a solid
global
footprint. This is a
task that requires the
best we have and the
best we can
give. Those who embrace
it will find in me a
great source of support.
Embracing
it together is what LAU
needs and deserves. We
can do no less.
In practical terms, our
most daunting
challenge is going to be
developing programs
suited for the new world
that is
taking shape now. The
other side of this
challenge is graduating
students with
technical skills,
behavioral traits, and
personal values that set
them apart
and propel their alma
mater into the elevated
position it deserves.
This same
push is going to be
attempted by many other
universities in Lebanon
and the
region. Only few will
arrive and I commit to
you that everything
possible will
be done to be on top of
the pack. To be on top,
however, we first have
to be on
tap close to the new
streams of specialized
knowledge, disciplinary
and
interdisciplinary. This
can only be done through
great faculty, brilliant
students, outstanding
academic administrators,
highly competent staff,
model
facilities, committed
alumni, and a supportive
community. It should
also be
done within our guiding
principles of providing
top quality education to
the
largest number of
students possible. Our
work is cut out for us.
Colleagues and friends,
As your leader on this
journey into the
future under grossly
unfavorable conditions,
I commit to you, one and
all, not
to demand from anyone
what I do not do myself.
I will work very hard,
incessantly and
tirelessly and expect
all others to follow
suit. LAU, as
always, will be a
university of faith and
compassion but it will
also be a
university of strict
accountability and
sustained high
performance. The
objective is to shorten
as much as possible the
time needed to move from
the
current survival mode to
a preeminence mode as
befits LAU and as our
long-term
strategy dictates.
I am counting on each of
you to help in
this great enterprise of
taking LAU into the
future where it
rightfully
belongs.
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